The Feelies : Loveless Love
On February 29, 1980 The Feelies released their debut album, Crazy Rhythms. The New Jersey quartet formed in 1976, taking The Velvet Underground's "What Goes On" ( or is it Patti Smith's "Free Money"?) as a starting point, but with even faster strumming, clean guitars and a lot of percussion. Quirky, influential and cool, this is one of 1980's essential albums.
In 1978 The Village Voice proclaimed the Feelies "The Best Underground Band in New York." A year later, they released their first single and the following year, after signing with Stiff Records, the album Crazy Rhythms debuted. Glenn Mercer says it's not what the record company expected .
The album didn't get much in the way of promotion, but critics raved. Robert Christgau gav ethe album an A-, writing:
They're suburban lads from New Jersey every bit as normal and unspoiled as, oh, Brian Wilson, only this ain't 1961: why shouldn't they know about Coltrane and "Sister Ray"? Beneficiaries of local privilege note that the magnitude of their rave-ups--and in essence all they do is rave-up--doesn't come fully alive on record, but their freshness and purity of conception does. Exciting in a disturbingly abstract way, or maybe disturbing in an excitingly abstract way, and either way is just the way these so-straight-they're-cool weirdos want it.
From David Hepworth of Smash Hits an 8 out of 10:
It's sometimes impossible to tell whether the tongue is in the cheek but they have the power to really draw you into their strange little suburban world. Definitely worth getting next to!
It would be six years before the Feelies released a second album, The Good Earth. The Feelies rarely toured ( although I did see them in Charleston, SC one time). Band members also played in Young Wu, The Trypes, Speed the Plough and The Willies.
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